AGENCIES GEAR UP TO HELP EASE OXYCONTIN WITHDRAWAL

It's A Twisted Case Of Supply And Demand

With scores of alleged OxyContin dealers now in jail, the short supply of
the illegally traded prescription drug has substance-abuse agencies, police
and hospitals in Eastern Kentucky bracing for a demand in their services
with a spike in nasty withdrawals.

"There are going to be a lot of sick people," said Rod Maggard, chief of
the Hazard Police Department.

Maggard has alerted his officers and the local hospital to look out for
people suffering from the nausea, sweats and even seizures that can
accompany withdrawal from the powerful drug, to make sure they get proper care.

"People are scared," said Mac Bell, a program administrator for the state
division of substance abuse. "A lot of dealers are getting off the street
and (users) don't know how they are going to handle it."

Withdrawal can be dangerous for those who have extensive, heavy use, he said.

The problem isn't new, said George Scott Walker, head of a treatment center
in Prestonsburg; 100 percent of his program's emergency referrals since May
were related to OxyContin.

"It's an epidemic," he said.

Bell said up to 90 percent of the 1,100 people enrolled in the state's
methadone-treatment program usually a last resort for opiate withdrawal got
there by using prescription drugs, particularly OxyContin. That's a shift
over the last five years or so, he said, from the era when methadone
programs served people hooked on drugs like heroin.